The Bayelsa state’s Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, has established the first Clinical Skills Laboratory for medical studies in the country.

The multi-million naira project consists of a block of building, furnished with multi-million Naira state-of-the-art medical equipment said to be the first of its kind in Nigeria.

Speaking at the inauguration of the laboratory on Friday, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Chris Ikporukpo said that the new facility was to enhance the practical learning of both students and staff in the School of Medicine and from other institutions.

He noted that “the feat” was a great challenge for a young institution like the NDU considering the limited financial resources of the University.

“Like I used to say, you don’t need to have everything, the funds may not always be available, but the ability to design and package this type of facility in our relatively new University is what counts most,” he said.

The vice chancellor, who lauded the benevolence of the state governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, for providing the fund expressed delight that the University had scored another first in the comity of Universities in the country.

He commended the Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Prof. Rapheal Oruambo and Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Prof. Olu Osinowo for “this great feat’’, noting that they were instrumental to putting the ideas into practice.

Ikporukpo charged the staff and students to ensure that they sustained the standard set by the university.

Prof. Olu Osinowo, the Dean of Faculty of Clinical Sciences, who conducted newsmen and staff round the facility, said the idea was borne out of the need to provide students and staff with modern laboratory skills and to equip them with practical knowledge of their profession.

“Most of our universities don’t have enough facilities to train students of medicine and what we have here is the latest innovation that has come in this decade, which will enable us train them in clinical skills using simulation,” he said.

Osinowo, a professor of clinical sciences, explained that the laboratory was made up of different skill stations with each equipped with modern facility for a specific skill.

He listed some of the units that make up the laboratory to include, a standard operating theatre, an Endotracheal Intrubation Management Station, Infant/Child Resuscitation Station and the Vital Signs Simulation Station among others.

According to Osinowo, the putting up of the laboratory is challenging but worthwhile achievement because “with this facility, the students will be able to achieve the level of competence that no other students can achieve elsewhere”.